Ramblings of an Emergency Physician in Texas

West Nile 2004: Mostly Good News!

Last year, West Nile Virus was big news, and for good reason. It was the second year of the virus outbreak, but was the first year it had really spread from the northeast into the rest of the US (I’m working from memory here, so that timeline may be off).

As predected, the bulk of the cases, and the biggest increases, are those states to the west of the hardest hit states last year. California and Arizona got hit hardest with both the highest totals and the biggest increases:

Let’s not get complacent. WNV is here to stay in the US, just another endemic disease. The cause of the drop in cases is no doubt multifactorial, including more emphasis on mosquito control, personal protection (DEET, etc.) and just the normal tidal-wave crest of cases with a new disease.

Anecdotally, I’ve ordered WNV testing twice this year, a huge drop from last year, so my experience correlates with this data.